Undeclared Panache

Back in December when I was at my parent's house in Michigan I was browsing the local thrift store, as I do every time I'm there, when I came across a great dresser, with a terrible finish. Now, I know it's not practical to buy a piece of furniture in a state you don't live, for an apartment that can't fit , but we had plans to move and I had a vision, plus it was a quality piece of furniture with great lines for $40! I didn't think I would be able to get to New York for a while, but I found myself randomly back in Michigan in March, so my dad generously made the 10 hour drive to get my new-old piece of furniture to its new home.

I knew it would look good as a dresser if/when we need to function in its intended use, but for now, I converted it into a perfect media cabinet. With the top drawers removed, you can get your ugly cable box, PlayStation and router off the top of the TV stand in their own little home. Plus I had more than enough room to hide all my embarrassing DVDs (cough cough "Dude Where's My Car," "Dickie Roberts") I was inspired by my side table DIY project from last summer and this media cabinet, here's what I came up with.

To see how I took this...

to this...

Keep reading.

**gallery wall still in progress

Here's what you need:

electric hand sander

white spray pain (I went through three cans of glossy white paint/primer combo)

white paint/brush/small roller (more on that below)

screw driver (to remove pulls)

drill with large bit

stain (I used Minwax Poly Shades Stain and Polyurethane in 1 - Pecan)

rag to apply the stain

1. remove the feet, drawers and take off the pulls, remove drawer tracks from top drawers, as they will be your media shelves.
2. sand the outside, and face. This piece had a terrible, thick finish, so it needed a real good sanding
3. spray paint the outside and face white. It actually took me about five coats for this one. I gave a light sand after each, concentrating on any areas that had bubbles or drips.
4. sand the drawer faces. Again, I had to use a lot of muscle, because the finish was terrible.
5. apply a thin layer of stain with a rag (be sure to wear gloves) and wipe away excess.
6. repeat steps 4 and 5 as many times as necessary, I had to sand and stain three times before I was happy with it. But not the finish looks much more natural and pretty.
7. The drawer pulls were all ready a dirty gold, but I gave them a quick blast with the gold spray paint to freshen them up. (sorry, I guess I slacked with the photos at the end)
8. I was debating refinishing the legs or painting gold, and after I realized that I couldn't easily sand the round legs, the gold paint won out.

Undeclared Panache

Lauren began Undeclared Panache in 2008 as creative diary, with hopes that others would find inspiration in her everyday musings. She is lover of glitter, vintage clothes, dogs, paper goods, Italy, confetti, pizza and parties. Lauren is a handbag designer by day and moonlights as a blogger, maker and DIY queen to channel her enthusiasm for fashion, interiors, entertaining and more.

Undeclared Panache is an ever-evolving journal of all the lovely things Lauren chronicles from her daily life in the New York City fashion industry.